Mass shootings have become an affliction in this country. Just in the past 10 years, there have been dozens of horrendous gun attacks in the United States. The affliction goes way back, for at least people of my age — 30 and under — to 1999 in Columbine, Colo., in which two students Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, killed 12 high school students and a teacher.

Today is one of the most important days for the City of New Brunswick, as residents have the opportunity to elect a new Mayor for the first time in almost three decades. The current mayor has been in office since 1991, and I for one think it is time for new leadership that will finally put the people of our city first.

Midterm elections in the United States are misunderstood and undervalued. A critical element to our democracy, midterms can prove to be the changing force in a current presidency, creating new policies and even standstills where the government can shut down as we saw in 2013. Midterms represent a symbolic step in our democracy that can serve to inspire the public to support a new candidate while ensuring incumbents do not shirk their responsibilities or their duties. Even with this information, it is curious that many young adults still choose to ignore the midterm elections in favor of waiting for the “more important” general election.

One of many lists in Carolyn Mackler’s "The Earth, My Butt, And Other Big Round Things," which in addition to being a fun, quick read really puts the spotlight on body shaming in the 21st century. Centered around main character Virginia, we get a first hand look at what it is like to be the fat daughter in an otherwise perfect family, and being the only plus sized girl in a private school. Virginia thinks about her weight a lot. She feels, on a fundamental level, that she is less desirable and in some cases less important than skinny girls. She lets her fatness dictate her life, believing she has to keep her interactions with boys a secret to avoid embarrassing them and, even worse, believing she has to go farther than skinny girls in order to keep a guy interested. It really hurt me to read that.

University President Robert L. Barchi barred student activists from delivering an important message at Van Nest Hall’s ribbon cutting ceremony. Student demonstrators from Rutgers United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) hoped to inform gathered alumni of posed criminal charges of 12 student activists following a peaceful protest last December.

The quote used in the petition to cancel Lisa Daftari's speech is as follows, “Islamic terror takes its guidance and teachings from the Quran, which is Sharia law.” The proper quote is “What ISIS claims to be doing is to take the Quran and its teachings and Sharia Law.” The removal of the word claims changes the meaning of the entire sentence, self-evidently. The individual whom started the petition has taken a moral high ground on an issue denouncing ISIS and converted a group of people into a mob whom is afraid the denunciation of ISIS could snowball into violence against Muslims, as if this were not a conclusion of an out-of-control positive feedback loop, but a totally rational conclusion.

It was here and it happened — Fashion Month, but most importantly, Fashion Week. If you are fortunate enough to take a daily stroll down the streets of Soho, New York City, then during Fashion Week, which took place in the first half of last month, you likely saw the sidewalks flooded with fashion lovers decorated head to toe. If you are not sure what I am talking about, you may be thinking, “Yeah people wear clothes, but why is there a week dedicated to it?” So let me start explaining — Fashion Week is a whole week where fashion designers get to run their shows and have some of the most famous runway models flaunt the season’s newest designs.

Student activism has met a new low. On Monday night, a Change.org petition began circulating around Rutgers groups calling for journalist Lisa Daftari’s talk on Oct. 16 to be cancelled due to her Islamophobia. By Tuesday afternoon, this dishonest petition had more than 1,000 signatures. Daftari, an accomplished foreign policy analyst who has spent her career covering ISIS and counter-terrorism, is far from an Islamophobe — her work is incredibly important to the lives of the countless Muslims who fall prey to ISIS. Student activists’ attempts to take her quotes out of context are shameful, dishonest and contrary to the purpose of a university, which is to educate and expose students to new ideas.

As a first-year student who enjoys hours of watching political videos happening on college campuses all across the United States, I admit I could not wait to see what Rutgers would have to offer in terms of political activism on campus. With the hotly contested midterm elections coming soon, I thought I may see Republicans and Democrats walking with their usual signs wanting to convince me to vote for one or the other, and I awaited the day I could have a good debate with both sides.

This fall I am teaching an American Studies course on the role of museums and monuments in American culture and history. I planned a three-week unit around the history of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and the controversies that surrounded the construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and WWII Memorial. We are also examining the National Museum of the American Indian and the recently opened National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the struggle that went into seeing these institutions realized as part of the landscape that is referred to as “America’s front yard.”

Society is becoming more aware of the prevalence of sexual assault and dating violence on campus. Part of this growing awareness is credited to campus climate surveys designed to measure on-campus sexual assault and domestic violence. Around the nation, these surveys estimate that approximately 20 percent of women and 6 percent of men experience sexual violence while in college.

In a letter published in The Daily Targum on Feb. 20, I gave myriad reasons for phasing out “animal science,” including climate breakdown, devastation of lands, pollution of water and soil, inflation of prices for grains, which could be redirected to eradicate human hunger, rampant and irresponsible use of pesticides, insecticides, antibiotics and other chemicals, horrific abuse and exploitation of nonhuman animals, lifestyle diseases, including cancers, obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and the spread of infectious diseases, including the recent deadly influenza epidemic.

Strongly-opinionated people have always clashed over what they believed was best for society. Yet, there always seemed to be a code of common decency and respect for those with opposing views. In contrast, this day and age has felt especially polarizing and divisive with it being compared to the likes of the Civil War. Some have attributed this divide to the rise of social media, which allows for the formation of echo-chambers consisting of like-minded people.

In 2012, the Rutgers/Princeton Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) Program was established to help develop future officers for the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The program here is one of the newest, but in just the span of a few years Rutgers/Princeton NROTC has shown that determination and hard work truly do pay off.

On March 30, thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip participated in a “March of Return” declaring the right, recognized by international law, of refugees to return to their homes following displacement. In the case of Palestinian refugees, there were most notably approximately 700,000 displaced in 1948 with the establishment of the settler-colonial state of Israel in what is known as the Nakba, with an additional 300,000 displaced Palestinians in 1967 during the Six-Day War.

Growing up in the Dominican Republic, one of the major lessons you learn is to care for your community. If a neighbor down the street could not afford their bills, the entire barrio pitched in to help them out.
This idea is what I want to bring to the student government on campus. My name is Vlad Carrasco, and I am running to be the first Latino Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) president.

I am running for New Brunswick Board of Education in the upcoming election, because I want to strengthen the ties between the community and our educational institutions.
Students are a critical part of the New Brunswick community, and young people are the future of our city and state. Whether it is the more than 10,000 K-12 students who attend our public schools, or the tens of thousands of college students who call the Hub City their home, education is central to the success of our city.